HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Eleven players found the scoring column as the #5/8 Lincoln Memorial women's basketball team outlasted the Coker Cobras 85-68 Saturday afternoon to improve to 17-0 on the season and 12-0 in the South Atlantic Conference.
The Lady Railsplitters, ranked fifth in the D2SIDA National Media Poll and eighth in the WBCA/USA Today Coaches' Poll, complete the season sweep of the Cobras with the win. LMU defeated Coker 83-62 in Harrogate back on Dec. 3.
Megan Pittman (Liberty, Ky.) led the way with 15 points.
Sydnie Anderson (Cleveland, Tenn.) had 11 points and
Karsen Sims (Gatlinburg, Tenn.) chipped in 10 points.
Dasia Maxwell (Knoxville, Tenn.) set a new career-high with her nine points.
Caitland Considine led the Cobras with 12 points.
The game was one of the few times this season that LMU was out-shot from the field and three-point range as Coker had a 42.1%-to-41.2% from the field and 45.0%-to-41.2% from three-point range. The Lady Railsplitters won the free throw battle, hitting 84.6% of their free throws to the Cobras' 55.0%. It was also one of the few times this season that LMU lost the rebounding battle.
Despite being a close game for most of the first half, LMU took the early 2-0 lead on a pass from
Shea Coker (Knoxville, Tenn.) to
Josey Harding (Middletown, Ohio) and never trailed the rest of the game. Coker tied it up at 12-12 off a free throw by Considine, but the Lady Railsplitters pulled ahead to lead 20-16 at the end of the first quarter.
Coker would cut it to two points on two occasions in the second quarter, but each time LMU had an answer. The second time they answered back with 7-0 run to make the lead 37-26 with 1:17 remaining. A Considine jumper would cut it to nine points, but a free throw by
Rachel Griffith with 32 seconds left made the lead 38-28 at the half.
A Coker basket by Iresha Cooper cut the lead to 40-34 with 8:15 remaining in the third quarter. Back to back three-pointers by Anderson and Sims and a pair of free throws by Pittman put LMU ahead by 14. The Lady Railsplitters would eventually lead by 21, 57-36, before the Cobras chipped the lead down to 61-46 at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter saw Coker make some inroads but the Cobras were never able to get the lead under 14 as LMU held on for the 85-68 win and the season sweep of Coker.
Next up for LMU is a one vs. two SAC matchup as their arch-rival Carson-Newman comes to town for a Wednesday night showdown. The Lady Eagles come into the game tied for second place in the SAC with Anderson, Wingate and Catawba, all of whom won on Saturday. C-N has a 12-6 overall and 9-3 record in SAC play following their 83-73 win over Newberry earlier today. The game will be broadcast regionally on MyVLT and live stats and a link to the 91.3 WLMU-FM radio broadcast can be found on www.lmurailsplitters.com
